Reject
by Reina de nieve
Summary: Agent Grant Ward's life is thrown a curve ball when he ends up with a genetic disorder due to a laboratory accident. No longer viewed a useful by Garrett Grant is now free to decide with whose his loyalties truely lie with.


Three years pre season 1, a Hydra base, third person omniscient Grant Ward rushed through the hallway cursing quietly to himself. He was late, very late for his training session with Garrett. When Grant was late that had a tendency to piss off Garrett and a pissed off Garrett was a very, very bad thing. It had a tendency to lead to things like being beaten and being forced to take part in interrogations. The look of anguish on the women's face as he wedge bamboo slivers under her finger nails still haunted Grant's dreams. But perhaps he still had the opportunity not to be late. Last week while he was cleaning Garrett's quarters he noticed a map of the base that had accidentally been left out. Being Garrett's pet gave him a relatively high security clearance for a field operative. High enough to be able to cut through some biology labs and with a bit of luck not be late. Grant ran through the bio labs shoes skidding on the slick tile floors. A scientist with a tray full of test tubes unexpectedly stepped out in front of him. There was no avoiding the collision. Grant through his hand out to catch himself and glass from the shattered tubes sliced open his hand allowing the spilled liquid entry into this system. Grant grumbled sorry to the scientist and picked the glass out of his hands on the way to gym where he was meeting Garrett. "You're five minutes late," stated Garrett with fire in his eyes. "I ran into some unexpected trouble on my way here," said Grant attempting to circle around what actually happened. "You should know by now that there is no use in lying to me. I've seen the security footage. What where you doing cutting through the labs were they were working on the genetic modification of humans? Biology isn't really you're style. Wasn't it just last month that I caught you stealing prototype bullets?" The Hub, 3 months season 1 Grant's point of view "Grant, you're physical has come back with less then stellar results. You are jeopardizing my plan to stick you on Coulson's team. Get your act together! Or do I have to find a replacement?" Garrett threatened. "I will be prepared," I chocked out. I trudged back to my dorm. Over the past few months I had begun to struggle through my workouts after a series of injuries. First there was a sprained ankle that happened after I stupidly tripped over my clothes that I had left on the floor. I never told anyone about that one. That last thing I needed was Garrett thinking I was clumsy. After that there was a dislocated shoulder suffered when I fell off the obstacle course. Garrett was unwilling to take me to a doctor as that would mar my medical record so instead he reduced it in the bathroom. The icing on the cake was a subluxed rib incurred in my sleep. Garrett was thankfully gone on some undercover mission so there was no way of easily contacting him. I had woken up with a stabbing pain just to the side of my spine that made breathing painful. I went about my day as usual until my stiff movement was noticed by a caring sparing partner. "It's nothing," I told her, "I just slept a little awkwardly last night." "Grant Ward admit that he is in pain. Say that again. I need to get this on video so I can finally have the proof that you are not a robot. Come on lets go down to medical or I will post screen shots of the texts you sent while drunk to me on Facebook," she said with a laugh. "No fair that's blackmail. I thought we were on the same side," I reply. But I gave in and followed her down to medical. I sit down in the hard plastic chairs that are ubiquitous to hospital waiting rooms and wait for two hours while more urgent cases are dealt with. Every so often I wriggle around attempting to find a more comfortable position but those chairs are uncomfortable no matter how I sit. Finally my name is called and I am led back into an exam room where I wait for another hour before being taken back for x-rays. After that there is yet more waiting. "This is why I don't go to medical for minor things. I have better thing to do with my time then spend all day waiting in an examination room. This make some of my stake outs when I work as a sniper look down right exciting," I grumble. As she opened her mouth to reply to me a nurse opened the door with a handful of x-ray films. "It appears" I cut her off, "I don't care what it is. Just fix it and get me out of here. I have spent far too much time as it is in here today." "Well you see I'm not qualified to reduce dislocations so I will have to get an actual doctor in here. I'm sorry but it will be at least a 15 minute wait." That was no surprise going to medical in Shield was just like any other emergency room. It's filled with endless waiting. Wait did she just say something was dislocated. This means that my sparring partner actually dragged my down here for a reason. I am never going to here the end of this from Garrett. I stared off into space until a portly physician came in. He reviewed that x-ray films, frowned and then pocked am prodded me for a bit before declaring, "I haven't seen this before I will have to get someone from orthopedics down here." A middle aged doctor came who I assumed was the orthopedic doctor came down there next. He glanced at the films. "I am going to bring some of the doctors doing the residency down here. A dislocated rib is an unusual injury and seeing it being reduced would be a good learning experience for them." I glared at him. The last thing I wanted was to be paraded around the ER like some kind of specimen at a freak show. The residents crowed around me while the doctor pressed on the rib with the heel of his hands till it went back in place with a pop. Years of not showing weakness had been drilled into my head by Garrrett so my face naturally remained expressionless despite the pain. 


End file.
